Most underrated midwest cities?

[bethards]

What about St.Joseph Missouri it doesnt get notice like it should

[sushisimo]

Duluth, MN. Beautiful location.

[Detroit_Luveur]

lol, what about novi?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know...Maybe when people stop pronouncing it 'No-veye.' We all know it's 'No-fee.'

[theSuburbs]

I don't know...Maybe when people stop pronouncing it 'No-veye.' We all know it's 'No-fee.'

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...i dont get it.

[Badgerballboy217]

I'd say the most underrated in the Midwest are:

1. Madison, WI

2. Grand Rapids, MI

3. Omaha, NE

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree... Madison, WI has around 220,000 people in its city and over 520,000 in its metro area. It is a great and wonderful city and home to one of the biggest universities in the country! Also another very underrated city in the midwest is Milwaukee. It is pretty much shadowed by the much larger Chicago. Milwaukee is a very beautiful city with a beautiful, and big skyline. About 600,000 people in its city and around 2 million in its metro area. I also agree about Grand Rapids and Omaha...

[miltown]

Milwaukee

[midwest]

How about Overland Park, KS. It's better than Wichita, and it's got a lot of great stuff. I would also say Algona, Iowa is pretty cool.

[AMCFan1]

Anybody with any knowledge knows in the state of Michigan, Grand Rapids is the best city in the state and therefore an underrated Midwestern city. Detroit is yesterdays news, and though the city is trying to save face with new development in the CBD is just simply too late.

I completely agree.

Everyone I know that has moved from Detroit to Grand Rapids doesn't miss Detroit at all.

[Southernyank]

Minneapolis does seem to be very underrated to others outside of this board. I think Its freakishly gorgeous.

[KCMOlover]

I would say Omaha is the most "underated". People talk about Kansas City, St louis, ect all the time. Everybody ignores Omaha, and Omaha is quite an urban place with an impressive dowtown. Wichita is also as underated as Omaha. Both these are comparitively smaller metros to others, but have very urban downtowns and desirable downtowns.

Sometimes I rank metros on who has QuikTrips. LOL

They would have to be a QT presence in any city I live in.

So that makes my choices:

Atlanta

St. Louis

Kansas City

Tulsa

Witchita

Des Moines

Omaha

Phoenix

Dallas/Ft. Worth

[MJLO]

well QT is nice, but if you're in the north, the midwestern equivalent is Speedway. I go to QT everyday, but it's not my Speedway, I wish I was back east getting my "speedy rewards".

[Rwarky]

What do you think are the most underrated midwest cities?

1. Kansas City, MO

2. Omaha, NE

3. The Twin Cities

4. Indianapolis, IN

5. Clayton, MO

I couldn't decide on a 5th one so I looked at Clayton, MO (which I think most people don't know of) and it has a 408ft skyscraper (along with other 20 floor skyscrapers).

Kansas City, Omaha, Indy, and Clayton may be underrated, but not the Twin Cities.

[Rwarky]

My picks for most underrated Midwest cities are:

Oklahoma City

Tulsa

Kansas City

Cleveland

Milwaukee

Omaha

[WOT]

My pick is Grand Rapids, MI, but please "Keep it a Secret"

(Bad GR joke)

[michaelskis]

My pick is Grand Rapids, MI, but please "Keep it a Secret"

(Bad GR joke)

That is my number two... but don't tell anyone.

My number one is:

Marquette Michigan. I know it is much smaller than the suggestions listed (population around 20,000) but the combination of surrounding natural resources, active student population from Northern Michigan University, small but dense bohemian downtown, rapidly increasing education rates, and a wide range of employment opportunities. Additionally, with increasing globalization and internet access, it would be very easy for businesses and companies to locate there and still be connected to the rest of the world.

Lake superior provides post card views on every shore, the ski hill has a diverse terrain providing enjoyment for all, the small town nature of the residents has a warm welcoming demeanor than makes everyone feel like they are at home, and between Marquette General Hospital and Northern Michigan University opportunities are endless.

[EGR-ARCHI]

I completely agree.

Everyone I know that has moved from Detroit to Grand Rapids doesn't miss Detroit at all.

Dido...There is alot of good development in the various satelite cities of Detroit, but Detroit itself (even with the recently announced Cadillac Hotel renovation) does not seem to be growing as rapidly and successfully as Grand Rapids.

[Randy@Tacoma]

Its funny. The starter of this forum gave you a choice of five different midwestern cities. He/She never mentioned Milwaukee or Madsion.... certainly not Rochester (LOL)! So, we should have stuck to our choices and left our own interjections out!

Anyway,

In order of what I think are the most underrated:

1. Indianapolis-I love that place! Gorgeous Downtown and lots of stuff to do! Mass Transit sucks a$$ though.... :-( Thats the only downfall I picked up...

2. Omaha-Again, I love this place too! One of the only midwestern cities that hasnt suffered the population loss like Pittsburgh (Oh IT IS DEFINATELY A MIDWESTERN CITY!!!) or Cincinnati.

3. Kansas City- I dont really think this place is underrated. Its pretty and functional. I would live there (As I would for all of these places except Clayton... EWWW!!!).

4. Minneapolis/St. Paul-This place is TOTALLY not underrated. It gets what it deserves. Its gorgeous, liberal, progressive, and cold/hot. I LOVE IT!!!!

5. Clayton- WTF!!! No ones ever heard of that thing. St. Louis is DEFINATELY underrated. Thank God its economy went to crap for those years. That way it preserved that GORGEOUS architecture you dont find ANYWHERE ELSE! Anywho.... Thats what ive got to say!!!

[hudkina]

Dido...There is alot of good development in the various satelite cities of Detroit, but Detroit itself (even with the recently announced Cadillac Hotel renovation) does not seem to be growing as rapidly and successfully as Grand Rapids.

The census bureau estimates that Metro Detroit added 70,456 between 2000 and 2005 and Metro Grand Rapids added 60,658, so Detroit (while not growing at the same percentage as Grand Rapids) is still seeing larger population gains. Granted, if you don't include Wayne County Metro Detroit is estimated to have added 133,401 residents, while Wayne County is estimated to have lost 62,945 residents.

In my opinion the Census Bureau is way off with Wayne County's estimates, as while Detroit still continues to lose population I believe that suburban Wayne County is offsetting that more than the bureau estimates. For instance, the bureau estimates that Detroit lost 64,599 people between 2000 and 2005, while Wayne County as a whole lost 62,945. that means that Suburban Wayne County supposedly only added 1,654 people. I'm not saying that Wayne County won't see a population loss between 2000 and 2010, but from the way the bureau is estimating it, the county will lose nearly 125,000 people during that period. There's no way the county will drop to that level, especially when you consider that the county only lost 50,525 between 1990 and 2000.

[superNOVA]

Based on those numbers, metro GR is growing 3x to 4x faster than metro Detroit - percentage wise. Which is very important - at that rate it really does not take long to make up a huge difference.

Plus, central Detroit is bleeding and seems to be bleeding even faster. It will stabilize, but not until Kwame is loooooooooong gone. At this point, the feel I get from the area is that people can't pack their bags fast enough. The banks are feeling the same pain. People are dropping mortages and even owned homes left and right to get out of dodge.

[hudkina]

Well, you're "feel" is mostly wrong, but being from West Michigan I guess that's what you're raised to believe.

Besides, it doesn't matter how much "faster" Grand Rapids is growing, as despite it growing "3x to 4x faster than metro Detroit" the actual population gap is still increasing by about 2,000 people a year, which means at the current pace of population gains, Grand Rapids would never catch up to Detroit. Until Grand Rapids is able to add more people than Detroit it will never close the population gap.

[Justiceham]

Clayton is a unique suburb in that it has some urban qualities, but it is still very much a suburb of St. Louis, if for no other reason, location alone.

btw, my parents live in downtown Clayton.

Wow, I just googled the skyline for Clayton. I've never heard of it before. What an amazing skyline for a city of 16,000!

[hudkina]

It's not a city of 16,000. It's a suburb of 16,000 that houses a large portion of the office space of a metro of 2.8 million.

[gvsusean]

Well, you're "feel" is mostly wrong, but being from West Michigan I guess that's what you're raised to believe.

Besides, it doesn't matter how much "faster" Grand Rapids is growing, as despite it growing "3x to 4x faster than metro Detroit" the actual population gap is still increasing by about 2,000 people a year, which means at the current pace of population gains, Grand Rapids would never catch up to Detroit. Until Grand Rapids is able to add more people than Detroit it will never close the population gap.

i hate these gr v. det convos, but if the percentage growth in gr is higher than detroit, that 2000 gap will close very fast. its all about percentage not actual numbers.

[hudkina]

No it's not. Growth isn't necessarily exponential. Just because Grand Rapids is growing at a greater rate now, doesn't mean that it will sustain that rate of growth forever.

For instance, if a city of 100,000 people added 100,000 new people every decade the rate of growth would decrease every decade. The first decade the growth rate would be 100%, the second decade it would be 50%, the third decade it would be 33%, the fourth decade it would be 25%, and so on.

Obviously as the population grows so does natural increase, but overall Grand Rapids couldn't begin to catch up to Detroit at its current pace.

[Snowguy716]

I wouldn't expect much from Detroit in any way of serious growth with the current economy. But that doesn't mean Detroit can't be a great city with some serious investment.

It's obvious that private investment isn't gonna fix the whole problem. I think there needs to be some major government investment on the infrastructure side to get Detroit kicking again.